“It’s really hard for me to be speaking here today, because we are staring down the devastation of the drought of 2011,” said Janet Caylor, representing businesses on Lake Travis. “And as y’all are aware, there have already been multiple bankruptcies, loss of jobs, many are struggling to stay in business.”

In 2009, the city-owned utility signed a contract with IBM to establish and maintain the system. It was supposed to go live in April 2011, but that didn’t go as planned. Now, Austin Energy is telling people to scrutinize their bills for errors that may have resulted in overbilling.

Now, this power behemoth, the biggest power plant in Texas and second biggest fossil fuel-burning plant in the nation, is planning to build one of the country’s more innovative pollution control projects. It will use some of its pollution to pump oil out of the ground.

A technology professor at the University of Texas has created an autonomous intersection management system that could pave the way for self-driven cars.

Computer science professor

Peter Stone has been working on what he calls “intersections of the future” for about a decade.

“A Ph.D. student of mine, Kurt Dresner, had the idea,” Stone said. “He was late for a meeting with me because he was stuck at a red light that he thought was far too long. And he thought, ‘You know, once cars are autonomous we can do a lot better than that.’”

“The rate increase would be cut into two phases — most of the increase starting this year, the rest in 2014; $105 million would be transferred from Austin Energy’s budget to the city’s general fund; and churches and small businesses would get a discount. So would customers outside the city limits.

People using 200 kilowatt-hours of energy or less each month would get the smallest bill.

The changes were meant to address some criticism of the utility’s first proposal. But some critics say the changes don’t go far enough.”